Inactive kids take long to fall asleep

Children who are inactive during the day have more trouble falling asleep at night.

Many studies in the past associate insufficient sleep not only with neuro-cognitive consequences but also with conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

To explore the relation between levels of activity and sleep onset time, researchers collected data on the sleep patterns and daytime activity of 591 British children, all 7 years old.

On an average, it took the children an average of 26 minutes to fall asleep, but the time ranged from 13 minutes to 42 minutes. Nearly 10 percent of the children found it difficult to fall asleep quickly, taking about 15 minutes longer than average to fall asleep.

It was found that children who were active during the day took less time going to sleep than inactive children and the more vigorous the activity, the faster they fell asleep. But for sedentary children, every hour of inactivity increased the time it took to fall asleep by three minutes. The above findings reinforce the belief that more you run around as a child, the better you will sleep at night.

The results emphasise the importance of physical activity for children, not only for fitness, cardiovascular health and weight control, but also for sleep because poor sleep patterns have been linked to poor school performance and a higher risk of a child becoming overweight or obese.